30-06's are popular, as well as .270's (lots of different loads available for them). Not only can you use those for Deer, but they are great in the case you ever want to go out west in the future (Mule Deer, Elk and probably not too big for Antelope, you might have to change your load though, and make it something smaller to be sure). Sorry, once again, my opinion is based on versatility. Both great guns nonetheless. As far as the manufacturer I wouldn't be too concerned about that. Bolt Action, Pump Action, Semi Auto...whatever you're most comfortable with or have already shot. I'd get the same type.

If you can find the Marlin XL7 in .270 or .25-06 that should do the trick. Powerful, good distance, and a quality rifle at an affordable price under $300. Do some research online, the reviews have been great.

The thing of it is that whitetail deer are remarkably easy to kill, as long as you place the proper bullet in the right place. Anything from a 243 WIN up to a 45-70 will work. Some guys swear by the 223 Remington, but I think that's too small. For calibers, I like to stick to the middle of the road. To stay cheap, be flexible.

Look up the 300 Savage. I would call it the quintessential whitetail deer cartridge. Anything you pick should compare favorably to the 300 Savage. The 30-06 and the 270 Win both are more powerful than the 300 Savage. So is the 308 Win. A little overkill is fine. The 30-30 is not as powerful, but folks take a lot of deer with that cartridge. The 300 Savage is good on whitetail out to 200 yards, whereas the 30-30 (without a lot of help) is just a 150 yard cartridge. Look at the velocity and energy of the 300 Savage and figure that's your standard for taking a deer out to 200 yards.

If you really want to go cheap, a military surplus rifle is probably just fine. I have a couple Mosin Nagants in 7.62X54R that can be had for $70. They make nice deer rifles. Ammo is a bit of a problem, but I reload. I would shy away from the AK and SKS-- 7.62X39 is not a great deer round. Any of those 8mm Mausers you see in the C&R bin will work as well. Just make sure you have a source of ammo before you jump into it. However, if you're in a try-before-you-buy mode, $70-$130 for a reliable rifle is maybe worth considering. At $70, you can buy $70 worth of ammo and have af few years of fun before you decide to trade up. Remember that a military cartridge is generally meant to kill a human-size target. Deer are about has hard to kill as a human-- little different, but about the same.

Nowadays, you should be able to find a gun shop that will set you up with a used bolt-action or pump 30-06 or 270 for $250 to $300-- Or a Lever in 30-30 or 35 Rem. Your friends and relatives will probably have something in their closets that they will want to get rid of. My last two acquisitions were a rare Model 70 variant for $200 and a minty Remington 870 TB for $150. Both were closet queens that somebody from work thought I might like. The blue-book values are 2-4 times that. As long as you are flexible on calibers, you should be able to score something nice.

Use Gunbroker.com as a free source of current gun values. If someone offers you a $200 rifle and you go on Gunbroker and see the same thing selling for $800, you know you have something. Just remember that if you buy off Gunbroker you have to pay shipping and FFL transfer fees. I have done this frequently, but I knew what I was doing.

Lastly: remember that you don't need anything with "MAGNUM" in the name in order to kill a deer. The only difference for your purposes between a 30-06 and a 300 Win Mag is several pounds of additional recoil. The only exception I will make to this is the 44 Magnum-- as a pistol caliber it is a magnum. As a rifle round, it's about on a par with a 30-30-- no weakling, but nothing stellar.

well last year i went up north for the first week ofrifle season where all my moms family lives. my uncle took me out to buck camp where we stayed, it isnothing but a all year round hard sided tent, or at least that is what i call it.
anyways my grandpa gave me his 30-30 to use but when i actually stayed at camp my grandpa didnt so my uncle let me use his 308 win with a muzzle break. it was my great uncle tim's gun who died falling out of a treestand, so it was a pretty big deal shootingmy first deer with it. back on topic now i reallly like this gun that i used. and i dont even remember the recoil, all i remember is the deer dropping right at the bait pile.

308 Win huh? Now there's a good deer round-- a bit more power than 300 Savage. Some say the 308 Win evolved from the 300 Savage, but it's more than likely that they evolved from the same idea: use the newer powders (back then) to get nearly as much velocity out of a much shorter cartridge-- sort of the short magnum of its day.

My favorite deer rifle is a Savage 99 in 308 Win. I download the round slightly so it functions like a 300 Savage, pushing a 165 grain Hornady Interlock at about 2600 fps. A factory 308 WIN round will go 100+ fps more.

If great unc's rifle isn't available, a close replica might be just the ticket.